Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock, born in Cody, Wyoming in 1912, was arguably the most important American Abstract Expressionist. Pollock arrived in New York in 1930, where he took classes at the Art Students League. He pursued a mentorship with the painter Thomas Hart Benton and immersed himself in surrealism and the subconscious, also intensely studying the work of Pablo Picasso. He enjoyed recognition in the early 1940s with the support of critic Clement Greenberg and collector-gallerists Betty Parsons and Peggy Guggenheim. Jackson Pollock became the face of abstract expressionism with his expressive drip paintings, created on the floor by flinging house paint and other media such as sand onto the canvas. Pollock died 1956 in a car accident.